


PomPom Threats

by Hexlorde



Category: MCU, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Fictober 2019, Gen, He never asked for this, Poor Bucky, Scientist Wrangler Darcy Lewis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-27 04:40:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20942420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hexlorde/pseuds/Hexlorde
Summary: Darcy Lewis just wanted to get her friend to consume something that wasn't coffee, maybe even have her take a nap. However, the lengths that she goes to might be considered a bit extreme.Bucky Barns just wanted to get away from the labs and back to his room. However, he ends up running into the wrong woman.





	PomPom Threats

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Fictober Day 7 prompt "No, and that's final."

It wouldn’t have been so hard to care for her pet scientist, Darcy mussed, had they still been living in an old RV trailer and a crappy lab. At least then Jane would sometimes get frustrated with the shoddy equipment and agree that if she stuck around it for much longer then she would have an aneurysm. Here in the Avengers Tower (formerly Stark Tower)? Everything was so new and shiny and functional that Jane couldn’t pull herself away from it. Even if they did have enough food to keep their bellies full and warm beds that didn’t have springs that poked them in the middle of the night Jane wasn’t enjoying it.

Which led Darcy to her current predicament: Jane had been in the lab for over a day, and as far as she knew the scientist hadn’t had anything to eat since yesterday morning. She hummed thoughtfully as she glanced at the clock, trying to figure out how to tell Jane that she was about to pull out the taser without getting another lecture about “being responsible with weapons.” Maybe if she acted quickly then she could drag Jane out before she realized what was going on… Nah, for that to work Darcy would need some serious muscles, and given that most of her “exercise time” was spent bopping around to music there was no way she could manage that.

She sighs as she pushes open the door of the lab; Jane’s still hunched over whatever equation she’s been chewing on for the past day, her hair wild and an army of empty coffee cups around her. She doesn’t even look up when Darcy calls her name, only looking up when Darcy touches her shoulder. She jolts and looks up with bloodshot eyes, one hand flying to her ear as she pulls out one of those wireless earbuds.

“Darc? What’s wrong?” she asks. Despite the peppy front she’s keeping up Darcy groans internally; even Jane’s voice sounds tired, and yet she’s still not moving from her chair.

“Jane, come on. You’ve been in here for way too long, you need to eat! When’s the last time that you had something other than coffee?” Darcy pleads.

Jane’s eyes narrow. “I appreciate that you’re worried about me, but I can’t stop now! I’m so close to cracking the Hermes Theory, and…”

Everything after that devolves into technobabble that makes Darcy’s head fill with static and error codes, so she tunes it out as she considers her options. On the one hand she can try spiking the coffee supply with some sleep aids, but she doesn’t know how those will react with the high caffeine stuff that Stark employees use. And besides, other people who have regular shifts and go home at night also use that coffee machine, and she doesn’t want to spike some poor intern who needs a pick me up in the morning before getting to work juggling tools for the full-timers.

On the other hand… Just as she’s contemplating finding something to shut down Jane’s work station someone walks by the door. He looks a bit uncomfortable, ducking around corners like he doesn’t know if he’s supposed to be here, so he’s probably one of the guys who stays up in the Avengers suites. Another piece of evidence to back up that theory is that this guy is ripped, which sparks an idea.

Abandoning Jane for a moment, Darcy runs and flags down tall, dark, and nervous. “Hey! Wait up!” she calls as she sprints up beside him. He jumps and turns toward her, giving her a good look at a metal arm that glints in the corridor light. She grins bright enough to match it as she says “You’re just in time! I have a scientist who needs to be dragged away from her work before she passes out and hits her head, and you’re going to help me.”

The man balances and starts to edge away from her. “Why would I do that?” he asks. Between the soft Russian accent and the way that he starts to move like he’s going for a knife Darcy figures that he’s one of the Black Widow’s friends, which means that her usual threat of a taser wouldn’t go over so well.

Instead she improvises, gesturing to his metal arm as she says “Because if you don’t help a poor damsel in distress then I’ll track you down and stick magnets to your arm. Now come on!”

He gives a surprised laugh at that, his blue eyes lighting up as he relaxes. “Magnets don’t stick to it. Just got it upgraded so that they wouldn’t,” he says.

Darcy smirks at him. “Alright, guess I’ll just be gluing pompoms to it then. You think that whoever upgraded it would be willing to work glue out of the joints?”

He shudders and shakes his head. “Please don’t. You have no idea what he’ll do if he has to deal with that.” Darcy arches her eyebrow and stares at him. Eventually, he sighs and says “Is there any way to get you to leave me alone and not drag me into scientist wrangling?”

She can’t help a little cackle as she says “Nope, and that’s final. Now come on, if we’re lucky then she isn’t dead yet.” She starts toward the lab door, and after throwing a stern look back at her new partner he reluctantly follows her. A quick look inside confirms that Jane is a: upright, and b: still engrossed in her work.

“You see the astrophysicist with messy hair and too much coffee? She’s the one we’re grabbing,” Darcy says. The man looks between her and Jane for a moment, then sighs and moves up behind the still hunched woman. He hesitates one more time before finally grabbing Jane around the waist and picking her up.

Within a few seconds the two of them are outside the lab and the man hurriedly puts Jane down. She’s still working through a mixture of shock, fear, confusion, and anger as Darcy yells “FRIDAY! Code Babygate!” The doors to the lab click shut seconds before Jane lunges for them and stays shut when she tries to open them.

With a huff she pulls out her earbuds and glares at her two assailants. “Darcy, I was almost done!” she whines. She looks over with puppy dog eyes, but Darcy just tugs on her arm.

“Come on Jane, you need to eat. If you don’t pick up the pace then I’ll have my new friend pick you up and carry you to your room,” Darcy says, punctuating her words with another tug.

Meanwhile, the man who had dragged Jane out makes a noise of disbelief. “Excuse me? I held up my end of the bargain, so leave me out of this!” he says. He actually backs up a step when Darcy whirls to face him, and holds his hands up.

“I can still grab my pompom supply,” Darcy says in a sing-song voice. Both of her companions take another step back, and now Jane has gone from ‘pissed off that she’s been locked out’ to ‘oh no she has a hostage.’

“Alright Darcy, I’ll go get some food, just leave him alone,” Jane says as she slowly steps over to Darcy’s side. “Now come on, you said I need to get something in me besides coffee right?”

Darcy smiles again as she grabs Jane’s hand and starts to drag her away. “Finally! Come on, the cafeteria has some awesome tacos today.” Halfway down the hall she stops and turns to look at the man with the metal arm (who was halfway to escaping unnoticed) and shouts “I’ll see you around!” before continuing on to the cafeteria.

Bucky Barns stares after her in shock, not moving until he’s certain that she’s gone. Then he turns and goes the other way, not caring that if Tony saw him so soon after the tune-up he would be in for an interrogation. Maybe he would know who that woman was and the best way to avoid her…


End file.
